The Obama political campaign reflects a lot of advancements in our country. These advancements demonstrate the qualities in politics and the changing course. Now what?
For the first time in politics, Obama’s capture of the White House declares a few things:
- Politicians can be YouTube’d, held accountable by people.
- Corporations can’t buy elections, any more.
- It’s the issues that matter, not the distractions.
- Americans are motivated, excited and looking forward to the next four to eight years. The campaign generated this feeling of hope.
Barack Obama sent a follow-up e-mail last night. I think that’s great but left me thinking, “Now what?” In my career, I realize the importance of follow-up marketing; I’ve been closely watching the marketing practices from Obama. One such thing is that Obama send somewhat personalized e-mails, where I think he briefed his copywriters on his talking points. This is more or less acceptable in the industry, but as I’ve been asking, “Now what?”
Barack Obama is the number one person on Twitter, exploding with over 117,000 followers. I find it a huge marketing, communication and trust opportunity for him to grow closer to his followers if he used it himself. That’s where I draw the line. He has his campaign tweeting (posting messages) on his behalf, and not him. I could think of how awesome it would be if he texted “We won. Thanks!” to Twitter. That would be incredibly motivating and personal. At least I would know that Obama didn’t only use Twitter for marketing purposes.
Now what?
The campaign is not over yet. Even though the president takes office on January 20, 2009, the challenging president will be finalizing their agenda, bridging the gap between the talk and the walk and executing his plan. This includes maintaining the buy-in from the people, building bipartisan political synergies and communicating updates to his most-passionate constituents.
We elected a president by means though digital media — the Web, the blogs, the Facebook, the Twitter, etc. Do you think he will maintain his presence? Sadly, I don’t think so.
I ask for the next president to please use Twitter. Please share your photos, please blog once a week. This would be a great alternative to the traditional radio address; certainly would be much more well-received by people. Don’t use the White House PR team, just post it yourself. For the first time in a while, we constituents love your character and want to know you, so you know us. Don’t listen to me, watch Gary Vaynerchuk on this.
Anyhow, I want to share my thanks for everyone who didn’t buy into dirty politics and voted on the issues that matter at home. Yes, even those Red States, I love you, too. Thanks.